It’s a poor design, but they’re cheap to make, especially since they are made in massive quantities because every controller is using the same part. My guess is that no one can manufacture hall effect sensors right now at the scale that Sony and Microsoft would need. Plus, Sony and Microsoft have no incentive to fix it, since it makes you buy more controllers, and it’s not like they are any worse than their competitor.
If anyone wants a controller with no drift right now, the Gulikit Kingkong controllers have hall effect sensors which won’t drift. They’re for Switch and (I think) work on PC, too. I don’t actually have one, so I can’t say for sure.
That makes sense. AFAIK, at least when the consoles launched, the PS5 and Xbox X/S controllers used the exact same parts for the joysticks. Maybe one of them has changed suppliers by now, but originally they both used this: https://tech.alpsalpine.com/e/products/category/muiti-control-device/sub/01/series/rkjxv/
It’s a poor design, but they’re cheap to make, especially since they are made in massive quantities because every controller is using the same part. My guess is that no one can manufacture hall effect sensors right now at the scale that Sony and Microsoft would need. Plus, Sony and Microsoft have no incentive to fix it, since it makes you buy more controllers, and it’s not like they are any worse than their competitor.
If anyone wants a controller with no drift right now, the Gulikit Kingkong controllers have hall effect sensors which won’t drift. They’re for Switch and (I think) work on PC, too. I don’t actually have one, so I can’t say for sure.